12 Days Of RazMas: Day 6 - Far Rock '95

It's day six and it's beginning to look a lot like RazMas. A blustery, blizzard threatening evening in NYC. Perfect night to be inside with good company, mellow out and enjoy some tunes. Tonight Top $ Raz along with Mike Love and Vithym transport us back to Far Rockaway circa 1995.


1. "Far Rock 95" sounds like it's something from straight out of the west. What was the motivation for this song? Was it influenced by any artist in particular?

"Far Rock '95" like every song on "Spilled Milk" was inspired by the beat. I sent Courley Dennis the sample, Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale", for him to make a beat out of it and what came out of that was the beat for "Far Rock '95". The beat sounds so 90's I was like yo you know I got to do a '95 flow on this right? I think the Bone Thugs West coast flow is def a staple of 1995. "1st of the Month" is one of my favorite tracks from that year.

2. How'd you decide you wanted Mike Love and Vithym to rock over this one? Did you come up with the concept for the song?

I feel like you should only do features to enhance the concept or completely convey the feel of the song. Mike Love and Vithym have a natural 90's flow so I called them up to get that fulll '95 feel on the song. I wanted to make it sound like one of those 95 posse cuts, where everyone is saying the hook at the same time. I also wanted to get creative and make a clear distinction that this was not us, (I don't move packs of anything except music 'all the way to California') and that we were paying homage to the era. In order to do that, I made sure it was a story line that we were following. This song is their story, them real street cats rapping in 95, that we're paying respects to.

3. In 95 you were like 7, what was young Raz doing, 14 years ago?

Haha, I was just about to go in to second grade. I wrote my first rhyme in the second grade. I was going by my government name Rasheem, until 97 when I heard that Biggie track "Victory" then changed my name to "Cashtro". I was a fat kid, so the line 'used to call me fatso, now they call me Castro' really inspired me. That was actually the first rhyme I learned by heart.

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Tomorrow, "12 Days Of RazMas" continues with Day 7. Cold Blooded feat Imagine That